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Today continues a look at our NCAA Division I Top 20
rankings.For more, visit LaxMagazine.com/LMranks. Follow
@LacrosseMag on Twitter and Tweet using the
hashtag #LMranks.The countdown will resume
Friday with profiles of the sixth-ranked teams in NCAA Division I
men and women.

Power Ratings

Offense: 4*Defense: 4Goalkeeping: 3Faceoff: 4
*Out of 5

Top Returner

A Rob Pannell (Sr.)
Pannell's talents, and the circumstances of a season-ending foot
injury in 2012, are well known. He has one semester of eligibility
remaining, so he did not practice with Cornell in the fall. Fellow
attackmen Matt Donovan and Steve Mock are plenty familiar with
Pannell's style. With the redshirt senior and former USILA
Attackman of the Year, the Big Red once again has the game's best
in crunch time.

X-Factor

G Andrew West (Jr.)
West missed the fall with an injury, senior A.J. Fiore has
experience and sophomore Will Joyce enjoyed a strong fall. What the
coaching staff needs is consistency — a 60 percent save
percentage wouldn't hurt — for this team to maximize
potential in 2013. The guess here is West wins the job, but he must
improve on his .516 save percentage.

What's New?

Coaching changes. Reassessing his staff's approach to the
goaltending position, coach Ben DeLuca brought Fred Rothman aboard
as a volunteer assistant to work specifically with the team's four
goalies. "That was the number one targeted area as a coaching
staff," DeLuca said. "We just needed to do a better job of coaching
our goalies, of preparing our goalies." Also new to the staff is
former Hobart and Jacksonville head coach Matt Kerwick, who
replaced the departed Matt Rewkowski (Georgetown).

What's Not?

The attack unit, which should be dynamic. With Pannell injured
last spring, Matt Donovan quarterbacked the 2012 offense and faced
the opposing team's top defender. Steve Mock returns with changes
to increase his career total of 84 goals. Pannell boasts 103 goals
and 149 assists in his career. Off the bench wait Canadians Danny
Lintner and Cody Bremner, and freshman Sean Doyle.

2012 Recap

Record: 9-4 (4-2 Ivy)

In a Nutshell: Through 10 games in 2012,
Cornell sat in terrific shape: a 9-1 record, the lone blemish a
one-goal overtime loss against Virginia. They had wins over Yale,
Denver and Syracuse. It was a team learning to play, and win,
despite the loss of All-American attackman Rob Pannell to a
season-ending foot injury in a Game 2 win against Army. But
beginning with a 10-9 loss to Brown last April 21, the bottom fell
out. Princeton throttled the Big Red in New Jersey, before Yale
eliminated Cornell from NCAA contention in the Ivy League
semifinals.

High Point: A 9-8 overtime win against Denver
on March 20. A close second was a 12-6 win over Syracuse on April
10, but the win against the Pioneers at neutral-site Hofstra on
Long Island was a confidence booster for a team still learning to
play without Pannell. After giving great effort in a 9-8 overtime
loss to Virginia a week after Pannell went down, the Big Red edged
Yale, 8-7, before beating Denver. It was the second of six straight
wins.

Low Point: It could be a 10-9 loss to Brown on
April 21, which eventually doused Cornell's NCAA at-large changes,
but the last loss of the season, a 14-10 defeat to Yale in the Ivy
League tournament officially ended Cornell's season, and had to
stick in the Big Red's minds all off-season long.

2013 Preview

Best Case: Cornell regains the Ivy League crown
and storms into the NCAA tournament with a back-to-normal Pannell
and eyes on the final four with a stronger situation in goal.

Worst Case: Princeton and Yale continue their
upward trends and keep the Big Red at bay for the Ivy title. March
games, and potential losses, to Colgate, Virginia and Yale set
Cornell back and it isn't able to overcome issues with Pannell
returning to an offense that got used to Donovan being a
centerpiece in his absence.

Inside Scoop

Coach Ben DeLuca's comments on...

A Matt Donovan (So.)
"He was just a star in terms of shouldering the load and doing a
lot of what Rob had done for us over the last couple of years... I
just think none of us expected him to be put in that position."

A/M Connor Buczek (So.)
"We thought Connor Buczek had a stellar fall. Stellar. At times we
thought he was our best midfielder. He's not quite as fast as some
of our signature midfielders in the past. But he provides us with a
big, strong dodging presence in the midfield. He draws a lot of
attention because of his size and his power."

The Cornell/Virginia series
"We've renewed... We're going to Charlottesville [this year] and
they're coming back to Ithaca [in 2014]. Coach Starsia feels great
about that game and so do we. For the forseeable future, we hope to
keep that game going."

Rival Coaches Say

"Will Pannell return to his old form? I'm sure he will. If so,
Cornell will have best player in the country. They will ride him...
They will score goals, but will have to hold up against a tough Ivy
League schedule... Pannell back along with a lot of offensive
firepower on the attack and in the midfield which can go two very
good lines deep; defense is always solid. Can they win faceoffs to
get the offense the ball and can they finally find a goalie? A
major Achilles' heel for them the past couple years... Still have
to be considered the Ivy League favorites even after last year...
They development of their young players last year has them poised
for a great run. Again the coaching staff has to not over coach
this group... Adding Pannell to an already dynamic offense and it
can be a long year for many defenses. Only questions for Cornell
come on the defensive end and in goal."